FlexCareers & Tresillian announce partnership to support working parents

Tresillian and FlexCareers are delighted to announce a new partnership that will be a significant addition to FlexCareers’ successful Return To Work program, supporting working parents through their parental leave and enabling employers to better support their employees. With a shared belief in empowering working parents and their families, this brings together the deep expertise and family support of Tresillian with FlexCareers and their employer partners.

Tresillian CEO, Associate Professor Robert Mills said: ‘We are delighted to be working with the team at FlexCareers to offer families support and encouragement during pregnancy and those returning to the workplace after the birth of their baby.’

‘Transitioning back to work after being home with a baby, can be overwhelming as both parents and baby get accustomed to a whole new routine. Our Tresillian Nurses offer sound, practical advice on helping parents adjust to their new responsibilities and manage baby’s transition to care. We understand it can be a very exhausting and emotional time especially if the parent doesn’t feel ready to leave their child and baby isn’t sleeping well at night.’

Mr Mills went on to say, ‘The pandemic has added another level of stress, particularly for new mothers where there has been a notable increase in perinatal anxiety and depression. Many are returning from maternity leave to work from home and feeling isolated away from colleagues (and their baby) for the first time. This trend has been reflected in the high demand for Tresillian’s support services throughout the pandemic.

‘Our partnership with FlexCareers through their Return to Work program will enable us to support families to prepare and plan for this stressful time with practical, evidence based advice, to ensure a smooth transition back to work,’ he said.

FlexCareers CEO Joel McInnes said: ‘We are so proud and humbled to partner with Tresillian who do amazing work supporting parents at a critical time in their lives. We know that being a working parent is tough at the best of times, but with the expertise from Tresillian and our comprehensive Return to Work program, employers who truly want to support their people can make a big difference.’

The arrival of a new baby is a time of great joy but can also bring challenges for a family. Up to one in three Australian families experience a problem with infant sleep¹ amongst other challenges, which contributes to 1 in 7 new mothers² and up to 1 in 10 new fathers³ experiencing postnatal depression in Australia each year. Additionally, for working parents, balancing work and career with family priorities is no easy task. For some mums & dads, transitioning into parental leave and then returning to work can be a stressful experience and requires a supportive employer. Facing numerous obstacles after many months away from work including changes in business processes, systems, & product knowledge as well as new stakeholders and team members, employees returning to work often have a learning curve and feel like they’re starting again in a new job. The impacts to employers include a decline in employee engagement & wellbeing, lost productivity and even retention challenges.

Georgiana Williams, mum and Client Solutions Director at FlexCareers said, ‘As a full-time working parent with three children under the age of 10, I know the difficulty in balancing family priorities, work and wellbeing. I have experienced the highs and lows of transitioning back to work after leave and have even turned to Tresillian for their expert advice and experience with families. It is especially helpful to understand the variants of “normal” when it comes to families and I am thrilled to be working with Tresillian, utilising their deep expertise in our Return to Work offering.’

FlexCareers delivers leading Return to Work programs that supports an employee’s transition to parental leave and then back into the workforce. Working with employers to design the right solution, FlexCareers looks at the experience journey of working parents to create the right interventions at the right moments including: expert coaching sessions, flexible work guidance, business mindset content, automated nudge communications, custom support content including Tresillian’s specialist expertise, and leadership training for managers to support their people on the parental leave journey and enable a smooth return to work. The outcomes are clear: improved employee engagement, wellbeing & retention, increased productivity and a better experience all-round for working parents.

Since COVID-19 Tresillian has seen a surge in demand for Tresillian’s services with a 125% increase in demand for its parenting advice help line. Since the start of the pandemic many working parents have had to persevere in isolation juggling parenting, work & other obligations. Supporting parents with children aged up to three years of age to sleep, settle and breastfeed, Tresillian has adapted to offer telehealth consultations where clients can self-refer in addition to the day services and inpatient residential programs. Now, in partnership with FlexCareers, Tresillian are taking that support even further to make a greater difference in the lives of working parents.

For more information contact:

Daniel Connolly – Head of Marketing & Employer Brand, FlexCareers
E: daniel.connolly@flexcareers.com.au

Ann Paton – Director of Marketing & Communications, Tresillian
E:  ann.paton@health.nsw.gov.au

Sources:

1. Armstrong K, Quinn R, Dadds M. The sleep patterns of normal children. The Medical Journal of Australia. 1994;161:202-6.
2. Deloitte Access Economics. The cost of perinatal depression in Australia. Report. Post and Antenatal Depression Association 2012.
3. Paulson, J. F. & Bazemore, S. D. (2010). Prenatal and postpartum depression in fathers and its association with maternal depression: A meta-analysis.

About Tresillian

Tresillian is proudly Australia’s largest Early Parenting organisation with 14 Family Care Centres across New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT. More than 80,000 contacts were made with a Tresillian service in the last financial year.

Established in 1918 in Sydney, as ‘The Royal Society for the Welfare of Mothers & Babies’, Tresillian’s focus is on supporting families during the first 2,000 days of their child’s life, including (amongst others) sleep, nutrition, behaviour and relationships; as well as specialist support for the mothers’ mental health including anxiety & postnatal depression.

Tresillian has an outstanding track record in offering families advice, guidance and education in the early years with a national Parent Help Line (from 7am to 11pm; 7 days a week) along with in-patient residential services, day services and group support programs for parents.

https://www.tresillian.org.au/

About FlexCareers

FlexCareers are leading experts in diversity, flexibility & future of work solutions across the entire employee lifecycle. We offer strategy consulting, coaching, branding, and training solutions as well as Australia & New Zealand’s largest marketplace for flexible job opportunities to employers and individuals.

We were founded by former bankers Joel McInnes & Marko Njavro who were frustrated by the obstacles they saw women encounter when trying to resume their careers following maternity leave. FlexCareers has evolved as the champion of flexible work to open career door opportunities for everyone. With a vibrant & diverse 160K+ community of jobseekers, partnerships with prominent & progressive clients, all underpinned by our bespoke digital technology, our purpose is to ultimately shape the future of work.

www.flexcareers.com.au